Tag Archives: semicolon

I just learned how to use a semicolon appropriately, but for the sake of never wanting to ever use one again, ever, I’m not going to use one again, ever. Especially in this article.

I do, however, want to help you learn something new today. Maybe you already know this, in which case you are allowed to sleep through this lesson. For all the rest of you, listen up. I’m going to explain to you how to appropriately spell the contraction of the words “you” and “all”. I’m sure you can tell already what that is just by the name of this article. And if it confused you, then you are in the right place.

The contraction of course is “y’all”. And apparently I’m supposed to put the period before the quotation, but whatever, I’m not an English major. Let’s just stick with one lesson today, okay?

The reason for this is simple. When you contract two words, you use an apostrophe. This little guy, “‘”. Examples include, (do + not = don’t), (can + not = can’t) and the most important one, (isn’t + am + will + is + that + not = ain’t).

When you’re (you + are, write that down and fucking use it correctly) combining, or contracting “you” and “all” you are going to use that apostrophe to separate the words while shortening them to make the actual contraction. Now, this isn’t one of those times when the word was made and then we were forced to try and pronounce it. This was a word (like “ain’t”) that was made down in the sticks by slurring the words together and creating a new word that has finally made itself home in our dictionary (citation needed). The word came out as “y’all” and that’s what we got. You could spell it “ya’ll” except it’s wrong and you look like a moron. Even my spell check allows “y’all” but not “ya’ll”. The reason is because there’s no letter “a” in the word “you”.

Even THEY get it.

Yeah, even the folks in Florence, KY get it. And if THEY get it, then don’t you feel more like an ass? No offense to Florence, KY, but it IS fucking Florence, KY.

So remember folks, that apostrophe, at least in this case, is separating the words. It’s not just keeping the letter count even on both sides.